Microsoft Power Automate Reviews

The primary use cases we are focusing on are applying automation to processes and integrating systems with API uploads. We have developed a module to handle private information related to the applications and API uploads to ensure the process is feasible without any challenges.

I believe document reading has been beneficial when dealing with Microsoft. 

There have been some challenges. We have struggled to take advantage of the power of the program due to the complexity of the reports we want to send to Microsoft. This includes client complaints, large discrepancies, and delays from data centers to solve the issues. As a result, we have faced both advantages and disadvantages. After some time, I believe Microsoft may have made changes to the backend that we are not aware of. This could cause issues, and the client has experienced instability in the current process. To address this, we need to make sure that any changes to the backend are documented and communicated clearly to avoid any potential issues.

The technical support has room for improvement.

I have been using the solution for six years.

I give the scalability of the solution a seven out of ten. The licensing is not bad but scaling requires additional work on the solution.

The solution is intended more for small and medium-sized organizations, not for large more complex companies.

We have 5,000 people using the solution.

The technical support attempts to address any queries, but their knowledge is limited. They try to come up with solutions for new problems and document them if they yield results so that if someone else has the same issue, they can get the same solution. However, they are technically struggling. To resolve the issues, Microsoft created a system where their internal technical team works with a mediator who understands the problem but may not understand the technical details. This mediator then takes the ticket up to the technical team analyzes the issue and provides a resolution. This system has saved them time in responding to and resolving the issue.

The initial setup is great. We're currently building with the connectors. However, automating the process may require additional hardware, which can take time to implement. We have to apply the policy and see how their applications access information. To accommodate the additional hardware, our plan has to be adjusted, but if we don't involve any alternatives, we can deploy more easily. 

The automation portion if required is a different department but for the basic setup, we only require two to four people.

The license is 20 million rupees per month. The cost is okay but we are paying per month. Microsoft is providing a license that is automatic which is very helpful. But we know that of the solution, we don't have any annual subscriptions. We pay monthly, otherwise, we choose another solution.

Microsoft is providing an automatic license with a cost of $20 million per month, which is reasonable. However, we don't have any annual subscription options, so we must pay monthly or choose another solution.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

Microsoft is predicting that improvements will come in the future which will be better than what's currently available in the market. Even if they can build simple and medium processes, they still need to add certain elements and acquire certain licenses in order to run the machine from one place to another. We need to let go of the keys, such as a community rotation which we are automating. I don't believe updates should be pushed for those who are happy with the version they are using because that version is capable and we have fixes for any issues that may come up. Microsoft is now focused on automating development processes. It is important that Microsoft give the community rotation back to users, as we are all users. Regardless of size, we need to be aware of the upgrades that are being made.

We don't believe additional personnel is required for maintenance. We currently have adequate processes in place and automation. In total, there are fifty processes running, two for every system. Therefore, we do not anticipate needing to increase personnel for maintenance purposes.

The other departments have implemented the AP60 and are currently working on it. In my department, we are using Power Automate which is working but I need to check what progress the other departments have made and if they are facing any challenges to determine if it is easier to build with AP60 or with Power Automate.

There are many alternative solutions to Power Automate that also are cloud-based that I believe offer an annual subscription but I am not sure.

I would suggest starting with simple or medium processes, rather than complex ones. Begin with a pilot project to determine if it is profitable or not. We should also try to find a way to automate the process, as it could otherwise become stuck. Additionally, it is important to consider any issues that could arise with the elements that are currently working; the same elements may fail tomorrow. Ultimately, if we can handle these issues in the development phase, the solution will function great.

We started using it just three months ago. These three months also include doing the proof of concept. We use it for IT operations where users can request for a software push by using a Microsoft Office 365 form. Using Forward Automate, I initiate the process. I have another department that is using it for requests for the PC team or for a contractor's visit to the main plant here in Panama.

It is basically free for me because it comes with my Office 365 subscription. The main feature is that there is abundant learning material on platforms like YouTube. You can find information about whatever you want to be done in Spanish or English without a problem. 

It is very easy to learn. Users can start using it on their own without any former training, which is something I like about this solution. 

It would be good to have some kind of on-premises solution for BPMN users, but I don't think Microsoft will ever go back to the on-premises solution. They all train their clients to use their online services.

It is easy, but it doesn't follow the industry-wide standards. I can only use the processes that Microsoft gives us. I can't map a business process by using other standards or notations, such as Business Process Management (BPM). I have to use whatever Microsoft gives us. I would like to have support for some standards because if we decide to use another BPM tomorrow, we will have to remap everything in notation to transfer from this solution. This is the only block or obstacle that I see in using this solution. It is closed in its infrastructure.

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for three months.

I can't evaluate their technical support because I haven't had any issues. We have an enterprise license and subscription from Microsoft, which gives us 24/7 support in case we have any problem with the solution.

The most complex thing was setting up Microsoft Exchange Online. Our email solution was Google G Suite Email. Switching over to Microsoft was very difficult, and it took at least one week. We are a small company. We did everything in one day, but we had issues for at least one week after the migration because we transferred all mailboxes from Google to Microsoft. 

It is free with Office 365 subscription.

We have just started to use this solution. The next step is to have a dashboard to polish the KPIs from the data stored through this application.

I would suggest using this solution if you don't have any budget restrictions for automating processes. If you are a subscriber of Microsoft and you use Microsoft Office 365, I will advise using it right away. If you have a budget and you want a solution that designs specifically for business profits, I will suggest implementing some other solution such as the one from Pega systems.

I would rate Microsoft Power Automate a seven out of ten.

More scripting capabilities could be included in Microsoft Power Automate.

The product could be more stable. I rate the stability as seven out of ten.

I rate the platform's scalability an eight out of ten.

There needs to be direct contact for the technical support team. The users need to submit a maintenance request and then wait for a callback or update from the support team.

Neutral

The initial setup process was relatively simple, with additional modules that could be imported during the setup.

Only some individuals typically handle maintenance, as Microsoft automatically manages most updates. Additional maintenance tasks are required only when necessary, such as for critical updates or multi-case scenarios.

The platform is averagely priced. I rate the pricing a five out of ten.

I have used Microsoft Power Automate to develop mobile apps and other applications. Additionally, we have implemented workflows and automated solutions for various processes.

It helps with the feedback mechanism, where we need to determine the relevant team and obtain their email addresses.

Microsoft could enhance the learning experience by offering more video resources.

I rate it a nine out of ten.

We use this solution to automate small parts of procedures in our workflows. Particularly, linking when emails are received, as well as picking out documents and loading them into SharePoint folders. From there, it feeds things like Power BI dashboards.

In general, they are specific things that we automate in order to reduce manual tasks. We have not applied it to any sort of more sophisticate process, like an approval process, or a supplier engagement process.

Implementing Microsoft Power Automate has made our development team more efficient. They are the ones who tend to have used it and applied it to help automate micro-tasks. It has made their life easier. We have not deployed it beyond our development teams.

The most valuable feature is that it is pretty low-code, so you don't need much coding expertise to use it.

I like that Power Automate is bundled with Office 365 and that it integrates with it pretty well.

The user access level and user account part of this product needs to be developed.  For example, if I'm a line manager and I have multiple approvals that are automated then I can't log into a dashboard and see all of my requests. I would like to have a user account so that the staff can see all of their requests, including the status and other details for each one, on the dashboard.

This solution does not work well with external people who are outside of the organization, like suppliers. It needs support for external email addresses. It would be difficult to do a supplier onboarding with Power Automate, whereas you could do it with Nintex, and this is a big drawback.

I would like to be able to set security and permissions on who can see request-specific details.

I have been using Microsoft Power Automate for less than six months.

In terms of stability, I think that it is going to be fine. We use Power Automate on a daily basis.

I think scalability is kind of limited by its features. If you're doing lots of little bits and pieces then it's fine. However, if you want to scale it to engage external suppliers or vendors then you can't really do that.

The security aspects and lack of user accounts in the interface are challenges for scalability. For what it can do is fine, but if you want to scale out across a business then I think it will struggle to have that breadth of features that enable you to scale it properly.

We have fewer than ten people who use Power Automate in the company, and they are all SAP HANA developers.

I have not been in touch with technical support.

We use Nintex, which does the same thing, but better. We have not switches solutions. We are dabbling with Power Automate to see if it can do a better job, or alternatively, be a cheaper solution for the really simple stuff.

The initial setup was very simple. The deployment probably took about half an hour. It isn't deployed as much as you pick a process and automate it.

We did not have a deployment team for this particular tool. Rather, we have business users who just picked it up themselves. They were SAP HANA developers to start with, so they were predisposed to knowing about this technology and having some kind of technology skills.

The number of people required for maintenance depends on how widely you've deployed it. In our case, it is self-maintained because people have automated their own workflows and they just tweak them as they need to. If you have a widespread deployment then it would depend on how many processes were changing that needed to be updated. It really depends on the situation. In general, it is not difficult to maintain, but it does require maintenance.

This solution is bundled with our Office 365, so there is no additional licensing fee.

We did not evaluate other options before using Power Automate.

We suspect that Microsoft is going to invest pretty heavily in this area. It might be strategic to start using Power Automate now because I suspect it will develop a lot of features over the next few years.

The suitability of this solution depends on how complex the processes are. My advice to anybody who is considering Power Automate is to make sure that it has the capabilities to support that, particularly versus a more established player like Nintex or AgilePoint.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

Repetitive interactions between legacy systems and Excel managed by human resource. By collecting small tasks, there would be tons of time/effort we can replace with RPA. However, my challenge was major RPA solutions are not so much cheap to be applied to these small tasks. I believe Power Automate would be sufficient and cheap enough as Microsoft announced it will be free for Win 10 users (with basic functionalities).

It is still a persona trial phase so not much change has been brought. However, I have convinced Power Automate Desktop can be enough for many use cases where much investments are difficult.

Interaction with Microsoft Excel is good and will be more better in the future.

More detailed explanatory manuals are desired. As new features are introduced every month, I would like to know what is new and what is changed recently.

I have been using this solution for a couple of months. 

I'm not sure whether the desktop version is stable. It is relatively new. It was launched in May. I haven't really tried it. But the trial version I'm using has been stable so far. 

I haven't tried to scale it, so I'm not quite sure. 

So far, the tech support has provided me with good enough support and knowledge. 

Power Automate has two versions. The initial setup of the trial version is really easy. All you have to do is just activate the environment and you can start working on it. However, for desktop version, you need to install the software. It should be as easy to download and install as the Office 365 environment. 

How long it takes to deploy will depend on how confident you are with your development. The development itself is not easy. 

I live in Japan and there are not very many consultants available for the latest Power Automate yet as Microsoft is investing quite a lot and new versions are released every month.

Should be high, as unattended RPA capabilities are available at almost free as I can utilize it under o365 license. No extra costs to start small and you can pay extra if you need premium services.

I would recommend Power Automate. Those will small use cases can use a free license. 

We evaluated Blue Prism and Pega. However, Pega was a bit difficult to use for citizen developers. It requires some support from consultants or engineers, so it's a bit of an investment. They're small and if we introduced consultants or engineers, then it wouldn't pay off. So for that use-cases, yeah, users lost interest. 

The solution has helped our company with automation. 

Microsoft Power Automate is an easy-to-understand solution. 

The tool should improve its price. 

I have been using the solution for three months. 

I rate the product's scalability an eight out of ten. 

We haven't activated technical support since it's expensive. 

Microsoft Power Automate's setup is easy. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

I've primarily used some automations, however, it was just for practice. I automated a few activities here and there. I have not used it extensively. For example, I can use it to read some emails or share files, or pull information from Sharepoint, et cetera. It can help me create new records for auditing purposes. It can pull data to show we are in compliance. 

The most valuable features include its ease of use for automation creation. It's very easy to use. We can go online and watch videos and figure out how to use it. 

It can help us improve many processes and workflows. It helps with efficiencies. 

The functionalities are very similar to other types of languages. It's not hard to learn, which means we'll be able to make more workflows in the future. 

It is stable.

It can scale well.

The solution comes bundled with Microsoft 365. 

I haven't come across any downsides to the solution.

We'd like to see even more free courses to help people learn to automate smarter. 

For countries in our region, it's not very well known. Microsoft has to do a better job of advertising it and how it can help businesses so that it becomes more well-known and widely used. 

So far, the solution has been stable. The workflows have been good. There are no bugs or glitches. 

The scalability has been fine so far. I haven't come across anything that would make me think it wouldn't be. 

We plan to use it more to make more workflows in the future. 

I've never used technical support in the past. 

In our company, we have people looking for new opportunities and tools to help the sales force in automation matters. 

The pricing is not clear to me. I don't deal with that. We have Office 365 and the solution is included in that bundle. 

It's a good product. If a company needs to automate something, it's a very useful tool.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

We could use it more. It's still new to me. 

It's a pretty big learning curve with Microsoft Power Automate and I'm trying to do a couple of other things. But I really have made some progress. I've actually started creating some bots. I've run into some snags. I haven't found my way out of the snags as yet. That's kind of why I'm not quite ready to publish because I'm not an expert yet, but I am actively working on it.

Microsoft Power Automate is on-premises because I'm using the Power Automate Desktop. So it's a desktop piece that I'm actually using and that's definitely on-premise. What I'm actually doing is interacting with actual systems. I run a clubby cloud system for moving data back and forth.

There are some very long processes that are happening now, where we need to move data from one system to another and do some analysis, and all of that. We're trying to automate some of that process to link the systems together. So some of it is actually reading the webpage, taking information off of the webpage, and doing things with it.

Power Automate is very user-friendly, it is easy to use. I find it very easy to use, easy to follow what's going on, to navigate around and get things done. I really like it. 

One of the features I like is the elements. Let me describe it. With Power Automate Desktop you're interacting with other pieces of software. That's kind of the whole point. You're grabbing information from other software so that you can then pull it together and move it back and forth between systems and do other things with it. Power Automate Desktop allowed me to quickly visually identify parts of a screen and record it. So I can see that I know I'm going to have to click this button here, this field there, and this tab here, and I can literally go and quickly just record all of them and identify them and have them in a list that I can see and say - there's my list of things.

Now when I'm actually pulling the logic together, it's really, really simple to just grab it from my list of elements and just fix things together. So I'm able to move faster than I can with Help and with the other solution. I really, really like that about it. I like its integration with other apps

Well, not integration. Because the whole point of Power Automate desktop is to grab information from other apps. So it's not a side feature, that's what it's designed to do specifically. So, that makes it easier to visually capture information from other applications, and then reuse those fields from other applications. I think it's the reuse that's really useful. Because I can see that I've done it. Whereas with the other one, did they do it or not?  But I really like that it is easy to capture visual elements of other applications and reuse them. 

The other good thing was the trial period. There's a much more realistic trial period of 90 days. So it encourages you to dig in on your own, and try and figure it out, because if something doesn't go right, you don't have to figure it out in 30 days, like all the others. So it's a 90 day trial, which makes sense to me because if it works, trust me, you'll never give it up. You going to use it, going to be hooked anyway, so 90 days make sense.

The problem with Power Automate is what happened when I had it set up to read web pages and Excel workbooks. But that was my first test, and I was working on it for around three days and then took a break of about two days. When I went back to it, all of the Excel, and all the Excel functions, just disappeared. Completely vanished.

I had installed it on my laptop. I had the spreadsheet there and all the features, because you have to do things like tell it to open the spreadsheet, tell it to read the cells, that kind of thing. And then you tell it to go to this webpage, and when you get to the webpage, log in, put in a username and password and then click on a button. So you have to put all of these steps and sort of link them together. And then when I came back, the flow was there, but it said all the steps that had to do with Excel were invalid. Anything that has to do with the web, it just said invalid. The whole tree, all instructions are still there, but the components that talk to Excel and the web were just gone. Just totally vanished.

When I looked up the help, it said that sometimes that happens when you're not connected to the internet. So it was kind of straight forward but complex as well.

It was straight forward, and then it just crashed, essentially. It just went. And I couldn't figure out a way to get the modules back. What on earth? So I switched to HelpSystems Automate, which I had also installed on my machine about a year ago. But now that I'd started working with Power Automate, that gave me the confidence to launch into the other one. So I launched into that one and that's where my HelpSystems Automate review would start. But if I would just stop by Microsoft Power Automate Desktop, that's where I'm stuck. I literally have not gone back to it. I actually find its easier to use. I prefer to use it, but it's just not working. It just stopped working. I don't know how to get this part back.

That's why I told you  I don't want to give a full review as yet because I don't know if it's something I did. I don't think so. But it just stopped. I'm still trying to give it a little grace, trying to figure out, trying to make it work.

What was difficult though, the weirdest thing, was just simple things like manipulating strings.

In terms of what features should be included, what would really help would be more help navigating webpages. What would help would be the help itself - if there would be lots of official walk-throughs. If it would say, for these scenarios, this is how you should do it, with the screen screenshots and the step-by-step thing. With other products I've used, even as a programmer back in the day, nothing ramps up learning faster than walk-throughs. It's not really the product itself, but more walk-throughs to help people ramp up their learning much faster.

That would be really great. Especially around web automation and services automation. Hooking into the EPI's of other solutions would be great. Right now we're just relying on the community of YouTube videos. People just set them up and do YouTube videos, and that's how they're hoping it will get solved.

It's not the type of setup, but it's the training on using the product that I would like to see more of. Better training on using the product itself, walk-throughs in particular, as a training method.

So I tell people that with Power Automate, you you can record the interview, that we're doing here, and fill out the forms automatically. All you have to do is sit down and engage the client with the right questions, and the system would listen to the interview and fill out the screen for you. So you thought, that would be really cool. Now you've downloaded it, and you're trying to figure out how on earth you do it. A walk-through is where you would go and this thing would literally say, "Capture audio and video." They give you a scenario and then they would have a little video that you can watch that shows you how to actually set it up. And then, in addition to that, you'd have a detailed scenario. This is what you want to do. Then it would have all the steps that you would need to actually do it end-to-end. If you follow the steps at the end of the walkthrough, you would actually have a working solution by just following the steps. By doing that, you're learning the product. You're learning how to use it. You learn so many things by using walkthroughs. And it's just training. It's not the actual product itself, it's training that goes along with the product.

This is Microsoft technical support. I'll try them. I haven't called Microsoft technical support in years. It's usually not a very good experience, but I will try. I will reach out to them and see what happens. When you go to support they tend to lead you to communities where other users are having issues. It's sort of, "see what you can find in the community." I will get back to it because I have to desperately get this thing to work. No matter which tool I use, I have to get it to work.

The price is why I even considered it, because HelpSystems Automate was winning all of these awards and was supposedly the easier tool to use. That's what it says. But Power Automate's pricing model had a more gentle incline. That's why I went to the Microsoft Power Automate Desktop in the first place, because the pricing seemed to be more favorable. It the end, once you're using it for the whole organization, you end up paying the same thing for both products anyways. But to get started, Power Automate Desktop seemed better priced. But then it stopped working and I don't know how to get it back working yet.

I'm using the HelpSystems Automate now, and I'm stuck on another step. I mean, it's hard and that's good. If it's hard, it means you'll get paid. So the bit being hard is not the issue. I just have no idea how to get Power Automate to work again. So when I do, I guess I'll let you know.

The licensing was on a monthly basis. I liked it because it gave me a more reasonable per user cost. So I can set up one user like me, and then quickly set up all the workflows that I need, and it allows me to evaluate better and longer. I can onboard two or three other logins at a very reasonable price. Ultimately everybody wants to just dominate the entire organization anyway, and so the price is going to get ridiculous at some point. But by the time it gets there, the organization would be benefiting so much from it they don't mind. Whereas with the other solution, you have to bite the bullet a little sooner.

I think you have to have an office license. I'm not sure actually. Maybe you can just use it by itself, but I'm not sure.

Right now, on a scale of one to 10, I would give Microsoft Power Automate a six since I can't actually use it. I really can't go past six. Maybe once I actually start using it, I'll rank it much higher. I think it has great potential if I could just get it back working.